This invention relates to a filling valve for filling containers with liquid. More particularly, the invention relates to a filling valve having a liquid passage defined by two detachable parts, a sleeve and valve stem, designed for easy interchanging, replacement and cleaning of its parts.
Liquid filling valves are used with filling machines in the bottling industry to fill containers with wine, water, olive oil, or the like. It is often desirable to fill containers with liquids quickly, to increase productivity of the filling machine. Moreover, it is often desirable to reduce liquid turbulence during the filling process in order to minimize oxygen pick up between the storage tank and the bottle; the liquid turbulence can be especially troublesome when filling a bottle with products such as wine. Furthermore, it is often necessary and desirable to sanitize valve parts, to replace broken valve parts, and to interchange valve parts to accommodate different types of containers.
Many existing filling valves have narrow liquid passageways which impede liquid flow, thereby extending the time for filling a container and limiting productivity of the filling machine. Additionally, in the existing filling valves, the liquid must often follow a path having ridges, resulting in increased turbulence to the liquid and corresponding oxygen build up in the liquid between the storage tank and a bottle. Moreover, the parts of the existing valves which contain the liquid passageway are not detachable. This not only give arise to a liquid passageway which is troublesome to access and difficult to sanitize, but also accounts for the inability to replace damaged valve parts and inability to interchange valve parts to accommodate containers of different sizes and shapes.
While these units mentioned above may be suitable for the particular purpose employed, or for general use, they would not be as suitable for the purposes of the present invention as disclosed hereafter.